Disclaimer:(see Prologue)

Chapter 8: After Hours

Izuku opened his eyes to see endless blue skies in front of him, the stars, moon, and sun were out as well; despite the odd phenomenon, Izuku didn't question it.

Getting up, he took a good look at his surroundings. All around him were oak trees of various ages as far as he could see; judging from the specific species of oak, he must be somewhere in North America.

"Hello?!" Izuku called out, "Anyone?!"

His voice echoed through the woods for a couple of seconds before quieting down to its normal ambience. Hearing no response, Izuku decided to start walking.

He didn't know how long he walked through the woods, but as he continued walking, something caught his peripheral vision. He turned his head and caught a glimpse of a figure walking away through the trees.

"Hey, wait!" Izuku called out to the figure, "Come back!"

Izuku started running after the figure, but no matter how fast he ran, he could only catch glimpses of the figure behind a tree in the distance.

He came to a halt when he reached a clearing in the woods, and was surprised to see a three-story house in the middle of it. The house was worn down, its windows cracked and dusty, and he could see the holes in the walls and roof.

He heard a long creaking sound and saw a glimpse of the figure he was chasing closing the front door of the house from inside.

"Wait, don't go in there!" Izuku yelled, running to the door and opening it.

A blinding light shone from inside as he stepped through. Once his eyes adjusted, Izuku saw that he was now on the top deck of a ship; a galley from the number of masts and sails he saw. Going to one side of the ship, he saw endless calm seas.

Izuku heard a slam and turned to see the once open doors to the captain's cabin were now closed.

Figuring that the person he was chasing, he went and opened the doors and continued his chase.

The scenery changed to one that felt familiar to him, in front of him was the Senbon Torii of the Fushimi Inari Shrine near Kyoto; he remembers visiting this place with his family a few times when he was a kid.

Izuku walked through the many gates, reminiscing on the fond memories he had with his family. As he walked a decent distance, the scenery changed again; instead of going through another torii, he found himself going through a portcullis into the courtyard of a castle. He couldn't tell who the coat-of-arms on the hanging banners belonged to.

"Hey!" Izuku called out, "Can we stop doing this?! I just want to talk!"

His voice echoed off the walls, then everything became silent.

Then, the heavy doors of the castle's main hall opened; hiding behind one of the doors was the figure he was chasing. Now getting a clear look at the person, Izuku saw that the person was female in appearance. She was wearing a simple, white, long gown; but it was the woman's face that got his attention.

"Kodai?" he asked. The woman's face looked like Yui's, but her hair and eyes were different.

Without saying a word, the girl disappeared into the castle's interior.

"Hey, wait!" Izuku yelled, running towards the girl, "Who are you!?"

Going through the doors, he now finds himself inside a cave tunnel with a dim light shining at the other end.

Running towards the dim light, Izuku came to a halt when he entered a large chamber full of tapestries hanging on the cave wall and ceiling or rolled up to the side. In the middle of the chamber was a large, clay oil lamp; the source of the dim light. Next to the lamp, Izuku saw three new figures.

All three of them were female; one looked like a young child, another looked like a late teen or young adult, and the last one was an elderly woman. The child was using a large loom, creating more cloth for the project they were working on. The young woman was stitching in multiple designs and images on the growing cloth. Finally the elderly woman was filling in the images and designs with colored threads and more detail; she was also reinforcing the tapestry's strength by adding more stitching to the borders and outlines.

"Uh… excuse me?" Izuku asked, trying to get their attention, "I'm sorry to bother you, but have you seen another person come by here?"

The three women didn't acknowledge him, continuing to work on their tapestry. Seeing that he wasn't getting their attention, Izuku slowly approached them.

"Excuse me?" Izuku asked again, "Did you see a girl pass by?" Again, they didn't acknowledge him.

Curious, he looked at the tapestry. It was largely incomplete, but there was enough outline sewed in to get the general image. The border of the tapestry had the outline of fire, the central background had a single large tree in front of a low sun with seven circles in it. The largest circle in the trees leaves, the other six making a vertical line down the tree's trunk; the bottommost circle was the second largest with a dark silhouette of a person in it.

But what got Izuku's attention the most was the main figure of the tapestry. The body was still a rough outline, but the head and face had enough detail for him to recognize it.

And he recognized it immediately.

"Is that… me?" Izuku asked, shocked at the sight.

Before he could fully assess his situation, the elderly woman raised a hand and pointed behind him. Izuku turned and saw the girl he was chasing sitting by the wall, back facing him. He saw that she was focused on one of the tapestries.

Slowly approaching her, Izuku saw that she was focused mending the greatly worn and torn tapestry.

"Hey," Izuku quietly spoke to her. Now that he's not chasing this person, he doesn't know what to say.

The girl stopped mending and turned her head to face him, giving Izuku a clear look at her features. What surprised him about her appearance was how familiar it is to him; she had the face of Yui, the hair of Ochako, and the eyes of Mount Lady.

"Who are you?" Izuku asked.

"... Find Izekial." The girl said.

All of a sudden, his vision faded to black.

Izuku woke up with a groan, bringing his hands up to rub his face despite being sore all over. Taking a look at his surroundings, he realized he was in Recovery Girl's office.

"I hope this doesn't become a habit with you, young man," Recovery Girl said to him from her workstation chair, " The school year has only gone on for two days and you've already visited my office twice."

"Sorry," Izuku apologized, sitting up on the cot he was in. He then realized that he was out of his armor and in a plain t-shirt and sweatpants; his arms and hands were wrapped in bandages as well, "How long was I out?"

"Pretty much the rest of the school day," she answered, " Not only did you and Bakugo beat each other senseless, you both exhausted yourselves completely; I had to let you both get some rest before healing your injuries."

The elderly heroine went over to give him a check-up; as she did so, Izuku looked around, Katsuki wasn't in the room.

"Where's Bakugo?" Izuku asked.

"He woke up and left just before you did." she answered, finishing her check up, "Alright, you've recovered for the most part, but you still don't have enough energy for me to use my quirk to heal your arms. So keep them bandaged, change them after showering, clean them thoroughly, and apply this ointment before rebandaging it." Recovery Girl informed him, handing him four rolls of bandages and a tube of burn cream.

"Now get yourself back to class, the day isn't over yet," she said, giving him a nurse's note, "your uniform is on the chair there."

Izuku thanked her after changing back into his uniform and went back to his class.

When he opened the classroom door, he saw most of his classmates were mingling with each other. When they looked up and saw him by the door, a lot of them went to greet him.

"MIDORIYA!" Tenya exclaimed, approaching his friend, "I'm glad to see you have recovered from your injuries!"

"I have for the most part." Izuku replied.

"I can't believe how awesome you are during the battle trial, Midori!" Mina shouted, getting close to the greenhead, "I didn't know you were hiding all that firepower in that nice guy personality of yours."

"I agree with Ashido," The well-developed teen commented, making herself known, "I'm Momo Yaoyorozu, and your display in winning the battle trial truly shows your prowess with your quirk; I hope we can be friends during our time in U.A."

"As do I, mon ami," the sparkly blonde stated, "your grand flair is second only to the shimming brilliance of I, Yuga Aoyama!"

"If we're introducing ourselves now, then I'm Sero Hanta." The teen with tape rolls growing on his elbows.

"I'm Tsuyu Asui," the frog girl introduced herself, "call me Tsu."

"Kyoka Jiro," the girl with cord-like earlobes said.

"Rikido Sato." a large, big-lipped teen said.

"Mezo Shoji." the multi-armed teen introduced.

"I'm Tooru Hagakure!" a floating girl's uniform exclaimed, getting in front of Mina.

"Fumikage Tokoyami." the birdhead teen introduced

"Mashirao Ojiro." said the large-tailed teen, "and his name is Koji Koda." he said, gesturing to the nervous looking rock teen.

"I'm Minoru Mineta," the small grapehead teen introduced.

"It's nice to meet you all," Izuku said after they introduced themselves. He did notice that the red and white haired teen didn't introduce himself, but he ignored it for now, "I'm Izuku Midoriya, and I would like to be a good friend to you all."

"Ah, Deku, your back!" Ochako said, approaching him, "Are you okay? You were really hurt during the trial." She asked, concerned by the sight of his bandages.

"Where's Mr. Aizawa?" Izuka asked her, "And Kaachan?"

"Mr. Aizawa said something important came up and ended class early," Ochako explained, " and Bakugo left a while ago, since the school day is over."

"Oh, okay." Izuku said. He felt the need to talk to his childhood friend after their confrontation, but there was no point in doing it now; it's not like he would listen to what he had to say. "If class is over, why are you all still here?"

"Uraraka and Kodai insisted on waiting for you," Tenya explained, "I decided to join them, one thing lead to another, so now everyone aside from Bakugo wanted to wait for you."

"Really?" he asked, getting a nod from everyone, "Thanks, everyone; I appreciate the gesture." he smiled with gratitude.

"No sweat, man." Eijiro stated, "I've only known you for about a day, and I can already tell you'd do the same for any of us."

As Ochako watched Izuku talk with his peers, she remembered him calling her by her first name during the battle trial. She didn't know why, but the thought of Izuku calling her by her first name made her heart race.

A knock on the classroom door got her attention. The blond with the black lightning in his hair, being the closest to the door, opened it. On the other side was Yui holding her school bag.

"Well, hello there," the boy said smoothly, seeing the beauty in front of him, "the name's Denki Kaminari, what can I do for you?"

"Mmm." Yui hummed in response, her neutral expression not changing. Seeing Izuku, she passed Denki and walked up to the greenhead, getting his attention.

"Oh Kodai," Izuku greeted her with a smile, "I heard you wanted to wait for me, I hope you didn't have to wait long."

"Mm." she hummed. Her eyes ten widened when she saw his bandages and took his hands into her own.

"Oh, this is nothing, Kodai," Izuku said to her, seeing the concern in her eyes, "Recovery Girl healed most of my injuries already; after I visit her again tomorrow, I won't have to wear these any more."

Yui said nothing, still holding his hands. After a few seconds of silence, things started to feel awkward for Izuku. "Uh… Kodai?" Izuku said, getting her attention. Realizing what she was doing publicly, she let go of his hands, blushing.

The other teens who witnessed the act had various mixed reactions, the most prominent from Mina and Tooru who looked on with excitement and Ochako who had a blank expression.

"Midoriya," Tenya said, breaking the awkwardness by presenting him his backpack"I've taken the liberty of packing your school bag for you as well as a copy of my notes from today's lessons."

"Oh, thanks, Iida." Izuku said and reached for it. Before he could grab it, Yui grabbed it for him and held on to it.

"Kodai, I'm fine," Izuku insisted, "I can still carry my own pack."

Yui said nothing, choosing to put on his backpack instead. Izuku let out a sigh.

"Alright," he relented, "but only until I get off at my stop at the station, alright?"

Yui nodded, and with that, Izuku said his goodbyes to his peers and walked out of the classroom with Yui by his side. Once both of them left, many of Class 1-A started talking to each other.

"Who was the babe?!" Minoru yelled out, tears falling from his eyes.

"Mineta! Do not address a fellow hero student in such a vulgar manner!" Tenya chastised, "If you all want to know, she is Yui Kodai from Class 1-B and Midoriya's companion!"

"Really?" Tsuyu asked, "It looked like their relationship is much more intimate than 'companion'."

"No, they really are just friends." Ochako assured.

"But did you see the way she held his hands and carried his backpack?" Mina asked eagerly.

"I did!" Tooru agreed, "She must really like Midoriya if she did all of that!"

Ochako said nothing in rebuttal. Looking out the classroom window, she saw the two people being talked about walking to the station side by side.

For some reason, her heart started aching.

"This better be important." Shouta said to himself.

An emergency meeting from the Hero Public Safety Commission was announced to take place tonight via a private server used for hero agency communications. Because of the message, the U.A. staff had to end the school hours early so that they could travel to the HPSC headquarters in Tokyo.

Shouta, now as his hero persona , Eraserhead, and his hero coworkers in U.A. are now waiting in the meeting hall in the safety commission's building waiting for the meeting to start.

As the meeting time drew closer, more heroes arrived at the meeting hall. Notable heroes included the dragoon hero: Ryukyu, the rabbit hero: Mirko, the paper ninja: Edgeshot, the flame hero: Endeavour, Ingenium, Mount Lady, Death Arms, Kamui Wood, and the Stylish hero: Best Jeanist.

Many heroes filled the meeting hall as well as high ranking law enforcement officials. However, there was one person that Eraserhead hoped he didn't have to deal with during the meeting.

"Yoohoo, Eraserhead!" the boisterous voice of Emi Fukukado, also known as Miss Joke, greeted him as the sea-green haired woman approached him, "Fancy meeting you here, huh."

"This was an emergency meeting from the HPSC, of course I'd be here." Shouta stated flatly.

"I see," Miss Joke said, "then why don't we have an emergency meeting of our own afterwards?"

"Forget it," he said, walking away from her. Miss Joke just laughed it off.

"You should at least give her one date, Shouta," Nemuri Kayama, also known as Midnight, told him, "she'll not stop pestering you until you do."

"If I allow her one, she'll start bothering me more than usual." Eraserhead said. "Speaking of being a bother; where's All Might?"

"Apparently, he used up all his time today," Midnight told him quietly, "we'll have to tell him what happened in the meeting ourselves."

"The big idiot," Eraserhead remarked, "well, at least that one less loudmouth to tolerate."

After he said that, a group of formally dressed men and women made their way to the front of the meeting hall; everyone could tell they were members of the HPSC and started to quiet down as they set up.

"Attention, everyone," the head speaker announced, "I would like to thank you all for taking the time out of your day at such short notice. Now, unfortunately, this emergency meeting starts with terrible news. This morning, Aki Hachishi, also known as the spiderling heo: Juro, is reported MIA. Due to the lack of any trailing evidence after extensive searching, it is now assumed that she has met the same mysterious fate as many other fellow heroes and civilians the past months."

Eraserhead showed no reaction as the meeting hall filled with quiet murmurs. He knows that being a pro hero is a dangerous field of work, so fatalities were to be expected. But what did concern him is the complete lack of a solid lead on the case after being open and worked on for so long.

"The reason that this tragedy is brought up," the head speaker continued, "is because Juro may have given us a breakthrough in the mysterious disappearances."

Surprise was the general reaction of the heroes and the law enforcement officials in the room, but the speaker continued.

"Last night, Juro was staking out a suspected drug den for its dealer on a sting operation related to a recent increase of illegal drug trading in the city of Nal Hutta. She must have discovered something important, because she started recording a conversation right before she became MIA. Fortunately, Juro linked her comms' recordings to her computer in her hero base. After accessing her computer's harddrive, we found the recording. This is what we found."

The speaker then played the recording on the audio system that was set up.

"Well, better get started, the sooner I finish, the less likely any little birds or flies will know what happened here. What is it?"

Suddenly, the audio started filling with static; then, a different, chilling voice spoke.

"Spider."

The audio then cut out. Everyone in attendance looked at one another, unsure of what to make of what they just heard.

"This was all that was found related to Juro's disappearance. We already have police investigators and central intelligence agents from the States working on finding who those voices belong to, but we gathered all of you here to see if any of you might have found anything that could relate to the voices or anything about recent drug crimes. The sooner we match these voices to their faces, the sooner we can end these disappearances."

The attendees started conversing with one another about the subject, Eraserhead included.

"Do any of you might know something?" he asked his coworkers.

"I was gonna ask you that," Present Mic stated, "drug busting sounds like something you have the most experience with."

"Well, nothing in my experience comes up when hearing the tape," Eraserhead remarked, "Though, what was it that Juro heard that was unusual enough for her to start recording."

"Whatever it was, it doesn't sound like a one off thing," Midnight stated, "They're most likely gonna hit another drug den or something soon."

"Good," Vlad King remarked, "now that we know where to start looking, we'll find them the next time they feel cocky enough to go out."

Before anything more could be said, the lights of the meeting hall flickered as everyone felt a cold pulse go through their spines, causing them to stop talking.

Suddenly, the audio system started playing static.

The head speaker of the meeting went to turn it off, but when he did, static was still heard from its speakers.

The static started getting louder and heavier. Then it went silent.

…

…

"Found Y-"

A sharp feather pierced through the audio machine, breaking it to pieces before whoever was speaking could finish.

"Phiew, that could've turned sour." A winged hero remarked, letting out a breath.

"HAWKS!" a member of the HPSC shouted, "you just destroyed a crucial piece of evidence for this case!"

"Sorry," he apologized, not sounding sorry, "but I've seen enough horror movies and played enough horror games to take any chances. Speaking of which, you might want to check up on those other guys you gave the copies of the recording to; just to be safe."

Many were divided on his decision, but it didn't matter as the meeting was soon adjourned.

As he headed home, Shouta couldn't help but worry about that voice.

"Whoever it was, they found out about the meeting and location," he thought to himself, "We're dealing with something unlike anything we've ever encountered before."

He just hoped he wouldn't have to deal with it personally in the near future.